Chocolate

Introduction

Chocolate is a food item used unprocessed and processed in various forms. The food item is cultivated from Theobroma cacao tree's seeds situated in the tropical region (West, 1996, pp: 102). Cacao seeds cultivated from the cacao tree endure a strong, bitter flavour. This seed are fermented in order to develop the chocolate flavour (Baker, pp: 12).

The process of chocolate manufacturing involves a number of steps. The following process mentioned below starts form the extracting of raw material till the finalization of the end product.

Gathering of Raw Material (Cocoa Beans)

The initial phase of chocolate manufacturing starts with the collection of raw material. The pickers plucking and open the pods of cocoa to gather the chocolate raw material. The Cocoa beans cultivate in pods, which grow off the trunk, along with the cocoa trees branches. The actual size of these pods is similar to that of a football. Initially the pods are of green colour, however; later they turn orange when they are full ripe. When these pods are full ripe, the pickers collect these pods from the cocoa orchards with the help of machetes and hack.

Later, the pods of the cocoa are transported to the factory for other processes. There are more than hundreds of pounds of desiccated and fermented cocoa beans wrapped in sacks, which arrive at the chocolate factory. These dried and fermented cocoa beans are then ready for further processes and made into fine chocolate bars or even cocoa powder. The whole process of manufacturing fine chocolate bars out of the cocoa is a process of not more than one to three days. Over this period, the raw material is converted and transformed into chocolates from the tropical cocoa seed to treasured chocolate bars (Beckett, 1988, pp: 26).

Roasting of the Cocoa Beans

Once the tropical cocoa beans are thoroughly cleaned, these cocoa beans are then ready to enter the first dire phase, which is flavour development in the industrial unit. The process of the flavour development in the factory is named roasting. The phase of roasting is divided into two (2) main approaches.

The initial part of the phase is to roast the cocoa beans for a short period on a high heat. This approach helps to produce a very strong chocolate flavour. However, this also eliminates any refined, fluoridated notes and dangers the expansion of overcooked flavours from excess roasting. However, roasting the cocoa beans for a longer stretch on small heat allows more mild flavours to derive over but detriments the immense, chocolate flavour.

Removing the Cocoa Shells: Winnowing

After the roasting phase, the cocoa beans shells are put through a winnowing device. This machine removes the entire outer shells or husks from the cocoa beans. What are left behind after the completion of this phase are roasted beans in the inner part of the cocoa. Later these beans are finely crushed into nibs.

Producing Cocoa Liquor: Milling

In this phase, the nibs are put to ground in thick liquid, which is known as chocolate liquor. This thick chocolate liquor is ...